The Binge-Watcher’s Companion Guide: Sarah Beth Durst’s The Queen of Blood as well as The Shannara Chronicles -

December will be the perfect season for a binge, be the idea on food (the idea’s sweater weather), alcohol (family time ahoy!), or books as well as television (the idea’s cold outside!). Well, we can’t tell you what to eat or drink, nevertheless we relish telling you what books to read to scratch a particular itch. In of which spirit, This kind of holiday season we’ve teamed up with Harper Voyager to create the Binge-Watchers Companion Guide, in which we asked 12 sci-fi as well as fantasy authors to suggest films or shows they think pair especially well with their novels. Today, Sarah Beth Durst tells us why MTV’s The Shannara Chronicles will be a Great fit for readers who loved her book The Queen of Blood.

The Shannara Chronicles will be epic fantasy meets MTV. You have my all-time favorite wizard-mentor-badass character (played to perfection by Manu Bennett), a lot of teenagers who take their shirts off for random reasons (please put your clothes back on — there are demons around, you guys!), as well as a post-apocalyptic Seattle. The basic plot will be summarized by the hero, Wil Ohmsford, after the taciturn Allanon, a.k.a. the only real adult in all the Four Lands, fills him in on his destiny:

“So I’m supposed to use Elfstones I don’t have to protect a princess who doesn’t want to be found by a Demon horde bent on laying waste to the entire world? as well as even if I succeed, which will be entirely doubtful, my life could still be doomed because magic will have fried my brain. I liked the idea better when we didn’t talk.”

I love every single second of This kind of show.

Seriously, LOVE, with all capital letters, even when the idea veers wildly by the books by Terry Brooks, which I also love. If you’re looking for a faithful adaptation, This kind of isn’t the idea, nevertheless the idea doesn’t matter because (A) the books are still there as well as the show will remind you to go reread them as well as (B) the idea’s full of glee.

Yes, the idea’s got its share of death as well as drama. You read the bit above about demons, right? People die as well as all of which. nevertheless the entire world will be beautifully rendered, the actors throw themselves into their roles with joyous abandon, as well as the idea has of which heady mix of adventure, magic, humor, danger, as well as romance of which fantasy does so well. the idea somehow manages to be both deadly serious as well as to not take itself seriously at all, as well as of which makes the idea so very fun.

I love as well as have always loved This kind of kind of story. I had my first taste of epic fantasy when I was a shy little kid who’d devoured every book from the kid’s section of the library nevertheless was too intimidated by all the high schoolers to step foot from the teen room. My mom brought me upstairs to the Science Fiction & Fantasy shelves from the adult section as well as filled my arms with books by David Eddings, Margaret Weis as well as Tracy Hickman, Guy Gavriel Kay, Mercedes Lackey, Anne McCaffrey, Robin McKinley, as well as of course Terry Brooks.

Fast forward a few decades as well as today I write epic fantasy. My newest book will be The Queen of Blood, the first book from the Queens of Renthia series. the idea’s set in a world filled with bloodthirsty nature spirits, as well as only certain women—queens—possess the power to control them. Like The Shannara Chronicles, the idea’s got its share of death as well as drama, nevertheless the idea also has adventure, humor, as well as expect.

I love seeing more of a genre I adore on the screen, as well as I love seeing characters who walked through my childhood today walk across my TV.

nevertheless the main reason I love This kind of show will be because The Shannara Chronicles fulfills what I believe will be one of the primary purposes of fantasy. the idea takes you away by the real world for a while, as well as when you come back to your life, you feel a little better because you’ve been immersed in a land where expect matters, love wins, as well as the entire world can be saved.

of which will be why I read, write, as well as watch fantasy: the idea has the power to add joy to the entire world.

Our world needs more joy.

Some days, the idea’s easy to forget of which there’s Great out there. So many people pour hate into the entire world on a daily basis. So many arbitrary, awful things can happen. as well as worse, so many intentionally awful things can happen.

Fantasy will be—or can be—a light from the darkness.

to ensure of which’s why I keep writing. as well as of which’s why I’ll keep reading. as well as why I’ll keep watching as well as eagerly waiting for season 2.